Calcium Ion Coordinated Polyamide Nanofiltration Membrane for Ultrahigh Perm-selectivity Desalination

Improving the permeate flux but retaining the rejection of thin-film composite(TFC) polyamide nanofiltration(NF) membrane is a high requirement for desalination. In this work, a calcium ion(Ca²⁺) coordinated polyamide(PA) NF membrane was prepared by directly adding CaCl₂ to the piperazine(PIP) aqueous solution during the interfacial polymerization process. Due to the coordination interaction between Ca²⁺ and the amide bond in PA active layer, the number of hydrogen bonds in the PA active layer was reduced, causing in turn the decrease of physical cross-linking degree. As a consequence, the pore of the PA active layer was enlarged, prominently enhancing the water permeance of NF membrane. With the increase of CaCl₂ concentration, the pure water flux of TFC NF increased significantly while the rejection of Na₂SO₄ decreased sightly. Compared with TFC NF membrane prepared without CaCl₂, the permeate flux of the Ca²⁺ coordinated polyamide NF membrane prepared under optimal conditions was increased by 3-4 folds with Na₂SO₄ rejection of 95.26%. Meanwhile, such a Ca²⁺ coordinated PA NF membrane showed a better SO₄^2-/Cl^- selectivity.